Maynard Institute archives

Body-Camera Footage Fuels Viewers’ Outrage

by richard01065

Networks Show Video of Fatal Cincinnati Encounter

Houston Protesters Denounce Cartoon on Sandra Bland Case

Philly Anchor on Leave After Husband’s Indictment

When People Feel Like the Token in the Room

Nigerian Journalists Cope With Threat of Boko Haram

Mary Hudetz, Past President of NAJA, Returning to AP

Court Papers Show Alleged Cosby Victim Is a Lesbian

Media Firms Contribute to Anti-Immigrant Policy Makers

Andre Trevigne, New Orleans Broadcaster, Dies at 66

Short Takes

This is the “CBS Evening News” report on the body camera footage that shows the encounter between indicted University of Cincinnati police officer Raymond Tensing and motorist Samuel DuBose, which ended in DuBose’s death. (video)

Networks Show Video of Fatal Cincinnati Encounter

Despite competing news from a heat wave and the discovery of  possible debris from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared last year, the indictment of a University of Cincinnati police officer for fatally shooting an unarmed black man commanded prime real estate on the three major broadcast networks’ evening news programs Wednesday.

The development led the ABC “World News Tonight” and was in the first news block on “NBC Nightly News” and the “CBS Evening News.”

The programs showed a damning body-camera video of the exchange between University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing and motorist Samuel DuBose that began as a routine traffic stop and ended with a single, fatal gunshot.

“It’s an absolute tragedy that anyone would behave in this manner,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who publicly released the video, said as cameras rolled. “It was senseless. It’s just horrible.

“He purposefully killed him.”

NBC included a follow-up story by Miguel Almaguer on body cameras. Anchor Lester Holt introduced it by saying that in previous years, “chances are the officer’s word would be the end of the story.”

As Kevin Williams, Wesley Lowery and Mark Berman reported for the Washington Post, “Police officers are rarely charged for fatally shooting people in the line of duty. Of 558 fatal shootings by police so far this year, according to a Washington Post database tracking such shootings, the death of [DuBose] is only the fourth to result in criminal charges against the officer.

“Of the others, two also involved white officers shooting black men; the third victim was white. All three were captured on video.

“On Wednesday, Tensing surrendered to police and was taken into custody as university officials announced his firing. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday. His indictment by a grand jury comes just 10 days after [DuBose’s] death — and almost exactly one year after the killing of a black man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., which sparked protests and energized a national civil rights movement.”

“Before the indictment was announced, Tensing’s attorney, Stew Matthews, seemed to anticipate that outcome, blaming ‘the political climate here and nationally.’

“Afterward, Matthews told WCPO, an Ohio TV station, that Tensing ‘was thrown under the bus by everyone in this city.’ Matthews did not respond to further requests for comment.

“Some local officials and activists complained that officials had not released the body-camera footage sooner, especially since it contradicted the version of events police released immediately after the shooting.

” ‘There was no transparency, no grace towards the family,’ said Iris Roley, a leader of the Cincinnati Black United Front, a civil rights group.

“But at a news conference, Audrey [DuBose], the mother of the slain driver, expressed relief — and forgiveness. . . .”

Williams, Lowery and Berman also noted that the video contradicted the officer. “At first, Tensing said he was forced to shoot [DuBose] because he was being dragged by the car and nearly run over, according to the initial police report. But Deters said that didn’t happen, and Tensing was wearing a body camera that captured the incident. . . .”

Michael McCarter has been the Cincinnati Enquirer’s interim editor since the departure of Carolyn Washburn in May. Peter Bhatia, former editor of the Oregonian in Portland, has been named the new editor and vice president of audience engagement at Enquirer Media, which publishes the Enquirer, but has not yet begun his duties.

“It’s a huge story in Cincinnati,” McCarter told Journal-isms by telephone Wednesday night. He said that people who have been following the story worldwide and have a full picture of the events “are outraged at what happened.” He said protests are peaceful, but that the newspaper was “prepared for everything” after violent protests in 2001.

“I would have to applaud how the prosecutor’s office handled this,” McCarter said. “He was here in 2001 when it wasn’t handled” well. Deters waited for the indictment “and said, ‘We are going to prosecute.’ That went a long way,” McCarter said.

Sharon Coolidge, Kevin Grasha and Dan Horn reported for the Enquirer, “Tensing shot and killed DuBose, who is black, after stopping his car at Rice and Valencia streets in Mount Auburn for having a missing front license plate. Although Tensing works for UC, the university’s officers are permitted to patrol and make traffic stops in areas where many students live off campus.

“The video shows some back-and-forth between Tensing and DuBose over whether he has a suspended driver’s license before the officer asks DuBose to take off his seat belt.

“At that point, DuBose tells the officer, ‘I didn’t even do nothing.’ nothing.’ He then starts the car and Tensing reaches inside the vehicle.

“The shot is fired seconds later.

“Deters, whose office reviews all shootings involving police officers, said he’s never seen a case of such poor policing. Even if DuBose was attempting to drive off, he said, Tensing should have let him go. . . .”

Byron McCauley, a member of the Enquirer editorial board who is African American, wrote, “I fought back tears as I watched the video of the incident. Tears because DuBose reminded me of one of my favorite uncles from Louisiana, the one who I’m told prayed for my life when I arrived home as a 4.6 pound preemie – tenderhearted but rough about the edges, loved by his friends and doted on by his family.

“He had been pulled over often. He had been arrested. He even served a little time. He and his friends spoke of harassment by police, but there were no cameras back then.

“Tears for every African-American man with a story like DuBose’s that was not recorded. . . .”

The Enquirer editorial board wrote, “Tragedy can divide a community, or it can become a source of strength.

“This incident — and the national attention, scrutiny and potentially divisive elements that will follow — undoubtedly is a painful one. But if Cincinnati loses its hope and its pledge to bridge the differences that occasionally separate us, that would be the true tragedy. . . .”



Houston Protesters Denounce Cartoon on Sandra Bland Case

“About a half-dozen demonstrators gathered outside the Houston Chronicle building on Tuesday to protest a controversial Washington Post editorial cartoon related to the death of Sandra Bland published Sunday in the Chronicle’s opinion section,” Dylan Baddour reported Tuesday for the Chronicle.

“Community activist Quanell X and former Houston City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones said the drawing made light of a serious matter, was disrespectful and highlighted cultural insensitivity.

“The cartoon showed a Texas police officer pulling over Bland’s funeral hearse for an illegal lane change and informing the driver her body would be returned to jail.

“Bland, 28, died in her Waller County jail cell on July 13, three days after a state trooper pulled her over for failing to signal a lane change. She was arrested on a charge of assaulting an officer.

” ‘To use a cartoon with a hearse with her name on the back window on the day of her funeral is poor timing,’ Quanell X said.

“He said he and others had put out calls on social media for followers to complain to the Chronicle, which has received hundreds of phone calls and emails about the cartoon since Sunday. . . .”

The cartoon, by Tom Toles of the Washington Post, appeared in the Post on Friday, but its timing — running in the Chronicle on Sunday, the day of the funeral — was not the main reason it offended, Jones, a lawyer, told Journal-isms by telephone.

“When I saw the cartoon, I did not realize the funeral had taken place. It was flat-out offensive. If you have to explain the satire, it’s not funny. The characters looked like they were in a game. This is not a game.” Jones compared the actions toward Bland with the drawing and quartering of black men during slavery, conducted as a warning to other blacks.

“In a statement, the Chronicle editorial board said the cartoon was meant as satire,” Baddour’s story continued.

” ‘In publishing it, we certainly did not intend to make light of her death. In fact, in an editorial published Thursday, we also expressed our outrage about the circumstances surrounding the traffic stop,’ the board said. ‘The op-ed pages are a space for an exchange of views. Sometimes those views are provocative, as with this cartoon. We’re sorry that it offended some readers.’ . . . “

In a column Tuesday, the Chronicle’s Lisa Falkenberg wrote, “I emailed Toles, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who is white, to see what he had to say. He passed along a response he had sent to many who had written him personally.

” ‘I am sorry that you found the cartoon offensive. It was not intended to be read in a lighthearted way,’ the email read in part. ‘The cartoon was intended to portray the outrageous level of pointless harassment of Sandra Bland by the police officer.’ “

The Chronicle newsroom is 7.3 percent black and 14 percent Hispanic, according to figures released Tuesday by the American Society of News Editors. Harris County, which includes Houston, is 19.5 percent black and 41.6 percent Hispanic, according to 2013 figures from the Census Bureau.

Philly Anchor on Leave After Husband’s Indictment

“Renee Chenault-Fattah, wife of the indicted U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), wasn’t charged by federal authorities Wednesday — but the longtime NBC-10 anchor did not escape the U.S. Attorney’s charging document,” Chris Palmer reported Thursday for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Labeled as ‘Person E’ throughout the 85-page indictment, Chenault-Fattah, one of the station’s most visible personalities and currently the anchor of the 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadcasts, is portrayed as a participant in a scheme to falsely report the sale of her 1989 Porsche Carrera convertible to a lobbyist for $18,000.

“The Fattahs used the cash to help buy a $425,000 vacation house in the Poconos, the indictment says, but Chenault-Fattah kept the Porsche — and even renewed its registration and took it to an auto shop months after signing the title over to the lobbyist, Herbert Vederman. . . .”

Palmer also wrote, “Anchor Jim Rosenfield, speaking during Wednesday’s 4 p.m. newscast, said Chenault-Fattah ‘is now on leave. . . .’

Jeremy Roebuck, Mark Fazlollah and Chris Brennan reported for the Inquirer, “Federal prosecutors Wednesday accused U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah of using his campaign coffers, charities he created, and federal grant funds he controlled to bankroll a failed 2007 Philadelphia mayoral bid and to line the pockets of family members and close political allies. . . .”

Palmer also wrote of the anchor, “Chenault-Fattah started with NBC10 in 1991, according to her biography on the station’s website.

“In the late 1990s she broadcast segments on her own pregnancy, which was achieved through anonymous artificial insemination. She has anchored each of the network’s prime-time newscasts, including the 11 p.m. news, which she hosted with Larry Mendte from 1997 to 2003.

“A lawyer before she became a journalist, Chenault-Fattah is said to earn a substantial salary from NBC10. But she fought to keep the figure private during her husband’s mayoral run in 2007, and his federal financial disclosure reports do not specify how much she earns.”

When People Feel Like the Token in the Room

“Last week, the internet exploded after an episode of the WTF! Podcast with Marc Maron went online,” Gene Demby wrote Wednesday for NPR’s “Code Switch.”

“The guest was the comedian Wyatt Cenac, who talked about being a writer and correspondent on The Daily Show for several years. He recalled getting into a heated argument with Jon Stewart, the show’s host, over Stewart’s impression of Herman Cain, which Cenac had found troubling . . .”

Demby also wrote, “Much of the ensuing hullabaloo over Cenac’s recounting of this incident focused on the fact that Stewart, a reliably liberal skewerer of the racial missteps of Washington’s powerful, appeared to have badly mishandled a conversation about race with one of his own staffers.

“But less attention was paid to what Cenac had to say about being the only black writer in the room, torn between speaking up or saying nothing and keeping the peace. (Full disclosure: Cenac is a personal friend.)

” ‘I gotta be honest if something seems questionable,’ he told Maron, ‘because if not, then I don’t want to be in a position where I am being untrue not just to myself but to my culture, because that’s exploitative. I’m just allowing something to continue if I’m just going to go along with it. And sadly, I think that’s the burden a lot of people have to have when you are ‘the one.’ You represent something bigger than yourself whether you want to or not.

“The Stewart/Cenac exchange illustrates what those of us who are often The Only One In The Room tend to know: it sucks.

“But it turns out that being The Only One isn’t simply burdensome and annoying on an individual level. There’s evidence that when people feel like they’re The Only One in a group, even a group that professes to care about diversity in its ranks, it actually gets in the way of everything said diversity was supposed to achieve in the first place. . . .”

People escaping the fighting between the Nigerian army and Boko Haram rebels get a friendly welcome in Niger. (video) (Credit: U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, 2013)

Nigerian Journalists Cope With Threat of Boko Haram

“This spring, everyone who knew of Adeola Akinremi’s plans to travel to northeast Nigeria to report on the tens of thousands displaced by Boko Haram told him to be extremely careful,” Cora Henry reported Tuesday for the International Press Institute. “Some urged him not to go at all. But Akinremi, features editor of the independent daily ThisDay, was set on telling the victims’ stories and he set out for Adamawa state the first week of May.

” ‘The displaced people have suffered in silence for too long,’ Akinremi explained to IPI in a recent interview. ‘All I wanted to do was to get the government to hear their voices through my writing and put pressure on the government to clamp down on the insurgents as quickly as possible.’

“After returning to southern Nigeria, Akinremi published ‘Why Boko Haram don’t deserve our amnesty,’ describing the anguish sown by members of the terrorist group. Two days later, on May 10, he received an email containing threats from Boko Haram. ‘You will die like other infidels that we captured,’ the email read. ‘You’re now a walking dead and a prey to the Lions of Islam from the bullet of a passing car or a nearby rooftop.’

“Akinremi is far from the first reporter Boko Haram has targeted. While the group arguably poses a threat to the safety of all Nigerians, journalists who write about Boko Haram can find themselves specifically targeted. Boko Haram militants have killed journalists in the past — TV journalist Eneche Akogwu in 2012 and cameraman Alhaji Zakariyya Isa in 2011 — and the group bombed ThisDay’s offices in 2012, apparently because it did not approve of the way the paper covered its activities. . . .”

Mary Hudetz, Past President of NAJA, Returning to AP

Mary Hudetz, a former Associated Press journalist who stepped down this month as president of the Native American Journalists Association, will return to the AP in August to become the news cooperative’s law enforcement reporter in Albuquerque,” the AP reported Wednesday.

Hudetz is editor of Native Peoples Magazine in Phoenix. She told Journal-isms by email, “I am assisting with bringing on a replacement for me. Based on key candidates identified, I have immense confidence that the new editor will be stellar, and I expect an announcement will come fairly quickly. It’s been a great honor to lead on editorial at such an important publication for Native peoples and cultures.”

The AP announcement said, “Hudetz, 35, began her journalism career as an AP news intern in Denver in 2008, then became a reporter that year for the AP in Portland, Oregon. While there, she produced breaking news and feature stories as she reported on unemployment and homelessness in the state during the peak of the recession. She also reported on local politics, crime and courts.

“In 2009, she joined the AP’s West regional editing desk in Phoenix . . .”

The announcement also said, “Her nearly two-year stint as editor of the bimonthly Native Peoples Magazine began in November 2013 and elevated the publication’s focus on Native American youth, the environment and tribal language preservation, while continuing its culture and arts coverage from Alaska to Maine to the Southwest.

“A member of the Crow Tribe in Montana, where she grew up, Hudetz served as president of the Native American Journalists Association from 2013 to 2015. . .”

Media Firms Contribute to Anti-Immigrant Policy Makers

“A recent report finds that a group of national media and telecommunications companies are contributing funds to anti-immigrant policy makers, while limiting news access and public affairs issues programming for Latino media consumers,” the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language daily La Opinión reported on Tuesday.

“The report, ‘Beyond Trump the Immigration Stalemate,’ was written by UCLA professor Dr. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda.

“According to the study, in 2014 companies such as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Cox, Time Warner and Dish Network contributed more than $7.8 million to the Republican Party and its candidates.

“In an interview with La Opinión, Hinojosa-Ojeda said the purpose of the report was to expose what he calls ‘two-faced’ corporations that say they support Latinos and fund Hispanic organizations and politicians, but then contribute large sums of money to anti-immigrant and anti-Latino campaigns.

“In the report’s recommendations, Hinojosa-Ojeda called on Latino advocacy groups to stop supporting companies that donate to the electoral campaigns of anti-immigrant politicians. . . .”

Andre Trevigne, New Orleans Broadcaster, Dies at 66

” Andre Trevigne, the longtime New Orleans television and radio broadcaster, whose career included a legendary stint as co-anchor of WWL-TV’s Eyewitness Morning News, died Monday. She was 66,” Dominic Massa reported Tuesday for WWL-TV.

“Trevigne’s son, Bruce Fowler Jr., said his mother died at a hospice after a long illness.

“Trevigne’s decade-long stint at WWL-TV in the 1980s and 1990s included her anchoring alongside anchors John Quaintance and Eric Paulsen on Channel 4’s morning newscast.

“When she and Paulsen were first teamed together in 1985, they won over fans and earned ratings higher than the network morning shows for their newscast and sometimes acerbic on-air banter.

” ‘Trevigne was a TV personality without compare, a hard-edged anchor-reporter who paired with Eric Paulsen to redefine morning news in New Orleans,’ wrote The Times-Picayune in 1998. ‘Eric and Andre were the “Moonlighting” Dave-and-Maddie of TV news, a couple of strong heads whose sometimes pointed on-air exchanges left viewers wondering if they were bantering or battling. . . .”

Massa also wrote, “Trevigne left WWL in 1992 and endured personal tragedy in 1993 when her son, Morris Smith, was murdered. In 1994, Trevigne joined WDSU-TV as a reporter, then turned her personal tragedy into a crusade to help fight crime and highlight the plight of victims, as host of a crime show on WGNO-TV. She was also the station’s first news anchor when it switched its network affiliation to ABC. . . “

Trevigne later hosted radio talk shows on WWL-AM and WRNO-FM.

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